I hope this is in the right place but I will be posting in the trading forum also. I am looking into starting my own online card shop, hopefully as a precursor to a brick and mortar store. I am working on obtaining my state resale license so that I can setup accounts with distributors and obtain boxes cheap.

I was just wondering if anyone here has any experience doing this? I have no idea on the prices that wholesalers will charge for cases. Seeing as I am not wealthy, my order would not be large seeing as I want to make sure that I can actually move the product and make a profit.

Any help and experience would be greatly appreciated, perhaps i'll even throw in a discount at my online store lol

I hope this is in the right place but I will be posting in the trading forum also. I am looking into starting my own online card shop, hopefully as a precursor to a brick and mortar store. I am working on obtaining my state resale license so that I can setup accounts with distributors and obtain boxes cheap.

I was just wondering if anyone here has any experience doing this? I have no idea on the prices that wholesalers will charge for cases. Seeing as I am not wealthy, my order would not be large seeing as I want to make sure that I can actually move the product and make a profit.

Any help and experience would be greatly appreciated, perhaps i'll even throw in a discount at my online store lol

While I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Upper Deck, Panini, and Topps have all put limits on who is allowed to sell recently released product online and who isn't, you have to fill out an application, send it in to the Manufacturers, and have them approve you being able to sell their product online, and they almost usually will not approve it unless you have a brick and mortar store or warehouse, you have to buy in quantity (I believe UD is 10 cases or more at a time, not sure about the others)and proven to be a reliable seller.

The only thing you would be able to sell is older releases, and the wholesalers like Dave and Adams, Blowout, etc, will always be able to sell those at way below the prices that you would have to sell them for, to even break even.

if your really serious about doing something like this, sell singles on ebay, etc...., start your own website selling singles, lots, etc...., there is more profit and lower costs in doing that, then there is selling pack, boxes, cases, etc...., and also less hassles to go through with a resale license, EIN, Insurance, Bonding, etc.....

Thank you for the response. I really appreciate it. I guess my follow up question would be, what is the best way to obtain singles at a cost where I could still sell them and make a profit? I hear many people talk about lots on eBay but it seems like most of them are common cards and bad inserts.

Thanks again for the response, it has been very hard to get any kind of information on this that isn't outdated or for people who have a ton of money to spend.

I don't have experience with an online shop.. but did want to comment on selling singles online...

I have been selling a lot of cards lately on ebay.. since they waived the insertion fee until 2013.. I'm taking advantage of it..

I have a lot of big time ebay sellers, trying to talk me into lowering my prices or buy offline (which I would not do, since you still get hit with paypal fees & you're not protected under ebay/paypal policies)..

The sellers that have contacted me, are usually interested in my "sets" or "lots".. they want to buy them for very cheap & then turn around & break the set up & sell off the singles... One guy did this with my Ultimate Signatures 2006-07 set... I lost about $300-400 selling that set too, after dropping my price, then getting hit with paypal fees...

Everybody wants to buy stuff for dirt cheap, then resell it... I've had a couple RC AUTO cards that I sold for what I thought was a good price.. only to find out, the buyer, turned around & relisted for almost twice as much... or got it graded & then trying to get a $1,000 for the card, when I sold it for a few hundred...

there are thousands of sellers searching ebay to buy cards for extremely cheap, then resell them for profit... I think this is too much of a gamble, if you do not have a lot of money to play with, because you never know when you will lose that gamble....

When it comes to selling boxes/packs online... it is extremely hard to compete with the two enormous internet sellers that were mentioned before.. they buy in bulk... & sell cheap!!

but I do believe that they do play with the boxes.... like with Fleer Retro... one week, they are selling at reasonable prices, then they say they sold out. only to get some the next day & sell for almost double the price...

I understand supply & demand, but where are these bigtime dealers getting their products from? I would think, the manufacture directly.. no middleman...?? now, where is that price increasing coming from, if it is not the manufacturer raising the prices? Which I do not think they should be doing!! Since they are the manufacturer & not a dealer... they make a profit, they release the wholesale price, & they sell every case at that original WSP, until the product is completely gone... they don't hide product, & release it later down the road... with a higher cost...

manufacturers should not care about manipulating the cost of the product.. but I believe they do... making it hard for small time internet sellers to compete with the Power Sellers..